The Long Distance World Championship in Ibiza was the biggest aquabike race since the 2019 World Championships in Pontevedra. Not only because of the big number of starters, but also because of the quite demanding course there were big points to grab for the best athletes in the race (read more about how points are calculated). So it´s no surprise that we saw big changes in the Aquabike.World Ranking after the race. All athletes inside the top 10 were competing in Ibiza. But it´s not the new World Champion who is now holding the top spot in the rankings.
Mathieu Dumont did only one more aquabike race within the last 12 months – the Swimbike & Aquathlon de Saint Estèphe. Where he – of course – took a clear win. Those two races where enough to get him on the current podium of the rankings, where he is now sitting in third position.
Second placed is National Irish Aquabike Champion Ross Hamilton. In Ibiza he was 6th overall, taking the silver medal in the M35 age group. Just as in the European Championships in Bilbao last year, where he finished third overall. Those two races together with the National Irish Championships earned him enough points to be in second position.
In both of the international championships races the Irishman was only a few seconds behind the new leader in the Aquabike.World Ranking. Congratulations to the new #1
Kris Whitelaw
After winning last year´s Northumberland Triathlon, he was second overall at the European Championships in Bilbao and 5th overall now at the World Championships in Ibiza. Chapeau and Congratulations Chris!
It might be a bit of a surprise that the top positions in the women´s ranking remain unchanged after the World´s in Ibiza. The reason is that many of the top ranked female athletes did either not participate in Ibiza or have also been participating in last year´s World Championships in Samorin, which means that they didn´t gain a big number of points. Women´s #1 is still last year´s dominator of the European Championships in Bilbao as well as the Standard Distance World Championships in Abu Dhabi Amy Pritchard. 2nd ranked Monika Lukens did participate in Ibiza and won the bronze medal in the F60 category. However, the big points were not made in this race by her. Monika raced no less then 9 aquabike races over the last twelve months, in six of which she was the fastest woman. Similar applies to third ranked Joanne Salaz and some other women in the top positions. There are quite a few ladies competing quite successful in many local races. Since athletes in the United States have by far the most opportunities to race in local aquabike races, the top ranks in the women´s ranking are pretty much dominated by US girls. With numbers of races as well as competing athletes in other regions of the world – especially in Europe and Australia – are rising, it will be interesting to see if this picture maybe changes throughout the year.